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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Roll Call: How Cordray Snagged 17 Republicans

by Jeff Sovern

Here. According to the story, Republicans agreed to vote for Cordray because he promised to testify before (Portman's phrasing) brief (according to the CFPB spokesperson) the Appropriations Committee on the CFPB budget. Another piece of the agreement, according to Portman, is that the Bureau will implement cost-benefit analysis of CFPB regulations, though the Bureau spokesperson would not confirm that. Assuming that the Senator is correct, that may not represent a change as Dodd-Frank already requires the Bureau to "consider . . . the potential benefits and costs to consumersand [the entities it regulates]" before promulgating regulations. 12 U.S.C. § 5512. I would have been concerned if the compromise required the Bureau to submit its regulations to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for cost-benefit analysis, as the proposed Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act would require, since review by that office seems to slow adoption of regulations significantly. See, e.g., Editorial, Stuck in Purgatory, N.Y. Times, July 1, 2013 (noting that 72 draft rules had been under review for longer than the 90 days specified by executive order;
38 had been under consideration for more than a year; and three have been languishing since 2010). But that seems not to be the case, and besides that would require congressional action rather than just a decision by Cordray.